those are the things that house speaker boehner and president obama talked about in july of 2011. that is going on behind the scenes. that's the sticking issue and so on the debt ceiling. if president obama wants them to give on taxes, he must give on that. if he doesn't, we will go over the cliff and he is looking at a bigger fight in january over the debt ceiling. everyone is focused on the tax issue, but the real focus is what is in exchange for a debt ceiling increase. is it substantial medicare reform? >> i don't agree that the press is not talking about it. we know that is the big battle ahead. i think that part of the confusion and your point, all of these republicans, both those that are elect and control the radio airwaves have all said we are going to see the tax rate for the wealthiest americans go up. for some reason, we can't or we won't any time soon see speaker boehner get before a microphone and say we know this is part of the deal. to that point, what do you make of the negotiations. at least the finger points and i'm not doing this and you are not doing this, thi